


An Unforseen Calamity

by cherrylove



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Depression, F/M, Miscarriage, Stillbirth, Stillborn, baby loss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-31
Updated: 2014-07-31
Packaged: 2018-02-11 05:54:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2056311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherrylove/pseuds/cherrylove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jon and Sansa end up in the hospital in the middle of the night. All is not well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Unforseen Calamity

They had just decided on a name before going to bed that night. Lyanna Alys Snow. It had taken them weeks to agree on a middle name. She had known immediately after finding out that they were having a girl that her name would be Lyanna after Jon’s mother, who died when he was very young. Jon wanted to use her mother’s name for their daughter’s middle name but they decided to instead use a name several generations back on her father’s side. 

They’d just decided on a name and now they were sitting in the emergency room. Jon was in only a zip-up hoodie and thin cotton pajama pants and Sansa in a thin, overly large t-shirt that belonged to Jon and her hair piled on top of her head. She’d woken up to the most painful cramps she’d ever had in her life and blood trailing down her thigh. She’d shaken Jon awake and barely said two words before he was grabbing the car keys, his hoodie, and shoes for both of them. 

Sansa gripped Jon’s hand tightly in hers as she waited for a doctor to come in to see her. A nurse who had asked her some general questions had already been in to see her; How old was she? 24. How far along was she? 23 weeks. Any prior complications? No. When had the cramping started and was it still happening? Around 1 AM and yes. When was the last time she’d felt the baby move? Around 11 PM that night. Had she partaken in any recreational drug usage? No. Alcohol consumption? No. She squeezed Jon’s hand as the nurse asked the last two; he’d looked ready to punch the woman in the throat. After the questions the nurse took her vitals again and then left to go inform the doctor and pass on her chart. 

“Jon…what…how did this…we just had an appointment three weeks ago and everything was fine,” Sansa murmured, sniffing. She’d cried the whole way to the hospital and the whole time she was being triaged. 

Jon buried his nose in her hair, pulling her gently to him, “I don’t know sweet girl…I really don’t know…maybe it’s just…just a false alarm.” 

She took in a shaky breath and swallowed hard, “Right…it could be nothing…”

There was a knock on the door and the doctor stepped inside. “Hi, I’m Doctor Martell, but you can call me Myrcella. So from what Shae has told me you have severe cramping and some bleeding and you’re 23 weeks pregnant. Generally with those symptoms we would assume a miscarriage, but since you felt some movement earlier we want to do an ultrasound to confirm.” 

Sansa nodded and wiped hard at her teary cheeks. The doctor opened the door and the same nurse rolled in a portable ultrasound. She raised the t-shirt and a cool gel as put onto her belly. The doctor turned on the machine and moved around the wand for a few moments searching for a heartbeat. Her brow furrowed and she turned off the ultrasound after a few more moments. She wiped the gel from Sansa’s rounded abdomen and had Shae leave with the ultrasound machine. 

“Unfortunately, it does appear that the baby has died and you are going through a late term miscarriage. I want to express my deepest sympathies, but I do need to leave you and your husband with two options before I give you some time. We can induce labor and you can do a vaginal birth or we can do a c-section. I’ll let you two decide. I’ll back in a little bit. Again, I’m very sorry,” Myrcella said before leaving the room. 

Sansa’s hands came to surround her belly before, digging harshly into her hair. A body-wracking sob ripped through her chest and her knees pulled up towards her chest. She rocked slightly and Jon stood there shell-shocked for a few moments before maneuvering to sit behind his wife and hold her. He stroked her hair and whispered to her as tears ran down his own face. He only lifted his lips from her temple to motion to the doctor that they needed a bit more time. Eventually Sansa calmed enough for them to talk. She still cried and wiped furiously at the tears streaming from her eyes. 

“What do you want to do my love?” he asked, threading his fingers with hers and pulling him closer to his chest. 

She shrugged and shifted in his lap, “I don’t…I don’t know…I think…I…I don’t know. I just…I want our baby girl…I want her healthy and alive and moving…I’d be pregnant for a million more months just to have her alive…” She sniffed and shook her head, “I’m so sorry Jon…”

“Oh sweet girl…you didn’t do anything wrong. You have nothing to be sorry for. This could have happened to anyone. It has happened…to a lot of people. You know that. Remember all those books we read?” he whispered against her hair. 

She nodded, “I know…I just…she was perfect at the appointment three weeks ago…” 

He kissed her head, “I know…I know. It’s confusing and scary and I’m so sad. I’m heartbroken, but sweet girl. We have to figure out what we’re going to do…”

She nodded and sat quietly, thinking for a few moments. She breathed in deeply and bit her lip before speaking, “I want to induce labor…I want to do this the right way…” 

Jon nodded, “Alright love. Will you be okay if I go find the doctor?” 

Sansa nodded and Jon eased off the hospital bed and slipped quietly out of the room. Five minutes later, Jon and Myrcella stepped into the room.

Doctor Martell sighed, “Well, Jon told me what you decided to do, so I’m going to have an orderly come in and move you to a private room up on labor and delivery. I’ll be up shortly to induce you and then we wait. Shae and I will be with you the entire time as well as your husband. I’ll see you soon.” 

She gave a sad smile and left the room. Shortly after Gendry, an orderly Sansa knew through her younger sister came in to move her up to labor and delivery. Jon pulled out his cell phone to make a phone call to the Starks. He assured them it would be a few hours and that it just needed to be him and Sansa for now and he’d call them once everything was done. He hung up and stepped off the elevator, following Sansa and Gendry down the hall. They were taken into a room and Sansa was settled into the bed after changing into a hospital gown Shae gave her once Gendry left. Shae started a saline IV and checked her temperature and set her up with a blood pressure cuff and a single heart monitor. Shortly after Myrcella came in with a small vial and a syringe. She started a drip of Pitocin to help the contractions that had already started and checked how much Sansa was dilated before stripping her membranes and breaking her water. “You’re about 3 almost 4 centimeters dilated so it shouldn’t be too long once the Pitocin starts working,” Myrcella told her before leaving her and Jon. 

Sure enough about twenty minutes later, Sansa was contracting consistently and Myrcella was stepping back into the room. She pulled gloves on, checked Sansa and nodded, “The Pitocin is definitely working and you are doing great. You’re at 6 centimeters so I want you to try and rest a bit. It shouldn’t be too long before I’m going to need to get you pushing. Definitely hit the on call button if you start feeling pushy. I know that sounds vague, but you’ll know what I’m talking about. Just hang in there.” Myrcella left the room again, discarding her gloves on the way out in a biohazard bin.

Sansa watched her go and felt tears run down her cheeks again. She winced as a contraction ripped through her belly and she closed her eyes tightly for a moment before concentrating on her breathing and Jon’s soothing words in her ears and hands on her lower back, pushing gently at pressure points. She sighed as it ended and she bit her lip, “We’ll have a funeral right? We need to have one…and we’ll…we’ll need…” She groaned as another contraction hit her. 

Jon put a cool washcloth on the back of her neck, “Shh. We’ll figure it out once this is all over love. Just focus on this.” 

Sansa nodded and breathed through the pain. 

Almost 45 minutes after Myrcella had come in to check on her, she started feeling…pushy. Jon left the room for a moment to find a nurse and returned shortly thereafter. Not long after Jon returned, Shae and Myrcella walked into the room. Shae checked her while Myrcella prepped some things. 

“Doctor Martell, she’s 10 centimeters. I’m going to get her prepped. “ Shae started to move some things, popping the end off the bed, and asking Sansa to move down a bit between contractions. Jon slid down with her, sitting behind his wife where she wanted him. He held her hand and she could feel the panic building in her chest with the sadness. 

Shae looked up at Sansa as she pulled on gloves after washing her hands, “Alright. I’m going to ask you to push. Don’t focus on how long it is, just push all the way through your contraction and remember to breath, alright?”   
Sansa nodded and gripped Jon’s hand a little tighter. Shae pushed the cloth higher up Sansa’s legs so she could see and watched a monitor, “Alright. As soon as your contraction starts, give me a nice strong push.” 

Moments later a contraction hit and Sansa followed the nurse’s instructions. She pushed hard through the contraction. This continued for a while and soon Myrcella replaced Shae almost unnoticed on the stool as she pushed. After about an hour Sansa began to realize what she was doing. She was bringing her lifeless daughter into the world the same way she’d planned to bring her alive into the world and dread and fear and panic set in. 

Her breathing came in short pants and she shook her head even as the contraction hit, “No…I can’t…I can’t…I can’t do this. I can’t….This isn’t happening. Take me home Jon…please…I can’t do this. Don’t…please…don’t make me do this…” she rambled almost incoherently. 

Jon felt his stomach clench and his heart ache for his sweet wife. He kissed the top of her head and squeezed her hand, “You can do this…you have to do this love. I’m right here. You can do this. You are so strong and I am right here and so proud of you…please. You need to do this…” He continued to whisper to her and soon her breathing was better and she was slightly calmer. She still shook her head, but this time as the contraction hit she took in a deep breath and pushed hard. She let out a loud, guttural scream as she pushed one last time and Doctor Martell helped slid the tiny baby from the birth canal. She was so tiny and almost unearthly. She was placed on blankets on Sansa’s chest for a few moments and Myrcella ties off the umbilical cord and Jon cut it. The baby was taken from them to be weighed, measured, vitals checked, declared stillborn and cleaned off a little. Once she was clean, she was wrapped in a blanket and a tiny hat placed on her head. She was placed in Sansa’s arms as Myrcella worked on Sansa. Once the placenta was out and things and Sansa were a little cleaner, they were given some time with their tiny stillborn daughter. She was, according to Myrcella, 1 pound 2 ounces and 11.2 inches long. 

Sansa took Lyanna’s tiny hand in between her thumb and index finger, stroking the unbelievably tiny hand gently. She sniffed and a sob wracked her body. She turned her head into Jon’s chest. He squeezed Sansa’s arm gently with one hand while the other traced a finger down the soft, almost translucent skin of their baby’s cheek. He too sniffed and reached up with the hand on Sansa’s arm to wipe away tears. They were given time in the labor and delivery room before Sansa, Lyanna and Jon moved up a floor to the Maternity floor. There another nurse, Gwen, who would be taking care of them, met them. She offered to stay for a bit with Sansa and talk with her while he called their families. He called Mrs. Stark first and asked that she and Mr. Stark come. He then called his sister, Rhaenys, and his aunt Dany. He left the hall and stepped into the room where Sansa was now by some act of god, sleeping with the baby tucked against her chest. He glanced over at Gwen, giving her a thankful look. She excused herself and he slipped into a chair, taking Lyanna with him. He sat by the window and rocked gently. When a knock came at the door, he wasn’t expecting it. It was too soon for it to be the Starks or his family. He opened it and it was a nurse along with a woman, carrying a camera. 

The nurse explained to him that Mya took pictures of parents and their stillborn babies to help them grieve and give them something precious out of a sad time to hold onto. She also handed over a paper with tiny hand and footprints. He smiled and thanked them, allowing Mya into the room. 

The next couple hours were filled with Sansa waking up, their families arriving and Mya taking pictures quietly and seemingly unnoticed. The baby was taken away almost an entire 24 hours later and Sansa cried for hours afterwards, Jon rocking her and holding her and stroking her hair. They were released later the next day with a referral for a therapist, Mya’s card, and instructions to set up an appointment with Sansa’s OB/GYN. 

The days following were planning the funeral, the funeral itself and the arrival of the pictures. Jon had had a hard time even getting Sansa out of the bed to go to the funeral that day and was tugging at his tie at the mailbox when he saw the envelope. He knew they had to be the pictures. He had talked to Mya only a few days ago and she’d said she was almost done editing and would be printing soon. He smiled sadly and stepped inside the house to go up the stairs to the nursery where he knew Sansa would be. Since the stillbirth and returning home she’d stuck to their bed or the nursery. He stepped into the room and touched her shoulder gently, “San…these came, do you want to look at them?” 

She turned and looked down at the envelope. She nodded and took them from his hands. She opened the envelope and began to flip through the pictures. There were hundreds. Many of her and Lyanna, some of her parents and Lyanna, one of her brother and sister with Lyanna, several of his sister and Lyanna, a smattering of Lyanna with his Aunt Dany and they all brought tears threatening to spill from her eyes, but it wasn’t until she got to the picture of herself, Lyanna and him sitting in the hospital bed that she fell apart. She collapsed to her knees, grasping the picture almost too tightly and Jon fell to his knees in front of her. He pulled her to him, his lips in her hair. “Shh…I know sweet girl…I know…” 

He knelt there with her for a while before standing, scooping her up and carrying her into their bedroom. He lay her down in the bed, taking the pictures from her hands and then slipping off his and her shoes. He lay behind her, holding her close, stroking her hair and whispering comforting nothings in her ear and against her temple. 

Over the next couple weeks, Sansa slowly improved and he felt okay to go back to work. He came home one day to hear sniffling. He followed it up to the now empty nursery and found Sansa sitting in the middle of the floor with pictures and picture frames and a photo album spread around her.

“I’m using the pictures,” she announced. He nodded and sat down across from her and smiled softly. She was. She was putting them into frames to put around the house, a photo album that he now recognized as the baby book they’d started when they found out Sansa was pregnant. He leaned over kissed the top of her head and began to help her. 

Jon had healed partly while sitting in that hospital room rocking chair with his stillborn daughter in his arms and then again at the funeral and finally when he looked at the pictures. Now it was Sansa’s turn. Maybe this, commemorating their daughter, giving her a place around their home, and completing the book all about her would help her finish healing. He hoped it would. His sweet wife had been sad and not herself for far too long.


End file.
